Click to Enter: Chapter Eight
Her hair was tightly braided to avoid tangling with golden wires, her suit skimpy to allow her skin it's maximum oxygen dosage. Kaoru squeezed her lids shut as she felt the new Plugin connect with her mind. A moment of queasiness quickly passed as she saw only static snow in front of her eyes. Within seconds a pixelated picture of crystalline flowers and empty skies emerged from behind her corneas. Shihandai was once again Online.
Her long legs extended below her as her weight pulled her to the bottom of the tank, only the pump kept her from hitting bottom as it pushed freshly oxygenated LCL from below. Her physical fingers twitched reflexively as she ran her mental fingers over hundreds of keyboards at once. Programs were made, friends were contacted, firewalls and virus detectors put into their proper place. Shinhandai spent the first of many Online hours making sure she would be safe as she swam through her own personal playground.
"It looks like that new Plugin works wonders." Itachi-Musume's voice filtered tinily from above. A few nonexistent button presses later and her petite form began appearing within Shihandai's domain. "Ah, it feels good to be here again."
"All protections are in their final phases of install. I've added a few new lions and a particularly nasty dragon for defense. It would take more than what's currently available, legal or not, to break into my domain." Shihandai turned glowing blue eyes toward her friend. "Where are Rurouni and Zanza?"
Itachi shrugged. "Icey is showing them around some basic level games. ToM is turning out to be a bit too detailed for them to start out with."
"Well, it is my best work to date, my crown jewel unworthy of any menial crown, my.."
"Can it. What's the plan?"
"I've spoken to the uppers at JPE. I've been given leave to play with some of the characters as I long as I don't interrupt gameplay. They don't seem to realize that their game is being used as a meeting place for some high-tech yakuza. I'm going to hack their character database without them knowing and find Smiley-Boy. Once I find him and can locate the characters he's been regularly interacting with I'll be able to not only block their IPs, but make sure their physical's are taken, too."
"You're going to hack their IPs?" Itachi began playing with the flowers all around her. "That'll be highly illegal, you know? As an agent I'm not sure If I can allow such a piracy of personal information to go on," Shihandai turned blazing eyes towards her again. "Without a proper federal warrant." Itachi picked a now midnight blue bloom and stuck it behind her ear. "Now, how to get you added as a player in our little Online game."
The screens and keyboards circling Shihandai went dark as she dropped into a freshly programmed hammock. "Well, think about it. You're researching Online deaths, I'm researching Online crime. Same hat, two colors. Who's to say we're not actually trailing after the same guys."
"Point. Of course, Rurouni has only today requested the particulars of the deaths giving us time to pull you in as a contracted specialist. I think I can get it pushed through in a day or so, then hacking their IPs won't even be needed. We at the JNSA have an automatic pass into any Online IPs registered through the blue brains." Itachi threw herself into an identical hammock and began wildly swinging as she promptly fell out the other side. "Dammit! This is only supposed to happen with real ones!"
"So, how real do you believe the Online to be," Shihandai asked, her voice dark with concealed laughter and mystery.
"Too real if I keep falling out of hammocks." They laughed and began throwing hair color programs at each other while waiting.
The newbies calmly walked into her world as if walking over a tea house threshold; with polite peeks and faltering steps once they realized that something wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the fact that Shihandai had chosen to greet them in a classically intimidating way. Her lengthened hair carpeted several stairs composed of glittering mosaic tiles continuously running lines and lines of programming while lithe legs and torso were carelessly draped across a throne made of glimmering crystal. Picture windows begged her attention as they popped in and out of sight with alarming quickness. The two men could hardly believe she was actually paying attention to their contents at the rate they disappeared from her view.
"What, what is all this," Zanza managed to say.
"Just checking my email." Shihandai smiled at them and tossed her feet into a much more proper position, crossed in front on the huge throne. "I like to do it in style." She banished the latest bunch of IMs with a BRB and focused her attention on the two figures in front of her. Misao had warned her that there hadn't been much time for them to become comfortable in their Online modes so she was able to analyze their original startup images with a clear eye into their personality depths.
"You," she motioned to Zanza, "are exactly as you seem at first. A good-hearted fellow with a liking for a bit of violence, yes? A strong sense of honor, but I see a finely treaded line. Yes, you'll do well with the Online. But you..."
Rurouni couldn't remember feeling so exposed as he did at that moment when her gorgeous blue eyes diminished into snowy white screens. The piercing black and white dots slowly darkened into what looked like a picture screen running the same code that now ran throughout the steps.
Shihandai stood and took three steps, her eyes still trained on Rurouni's features, his dark clothes and the perfectly imaged sword held at his waist. "You... might become a problem." She blinked and seriously set blue eyes opened. "I'm not interested in your past, but you have secrets you've not come to terms with just yet. This darkness can and will overtake you within the Online if you are not careful. Fragile minds are a weakness in this world you wish to tread."
His forehead wrinkled in confusion just as she turned and waved her hand in dismissal. "Enough with the oracle stuff, time to get to work." The throne and dais behind her dropped into the nothingness of a puddle of water out of which emerged five comfy looking chairs complete with ottomans. "Sit, sit. We have a lot to go over. Rurouni, do you know how the files are named for your cases? We should be able to access them here for viewing. There are a couple of blank spaces for me to fill in."
Ice-Eyes, who had entered the domain immediately after Rurouni and Zanza, took a tired looking brown leather chair and immediately pulled up three files and a blank one ready for notes. He nodded to Itachi-Musume as she pounced from the ceiling into the chair next to him. She grinned and waved at the newbies. "Did Icey show you how to recall files? It's really simple, we're actually connected to the entire JNSA network right now. Just bring up an image of the directory in your mind and follow the file path. It will still ask for your password, of course. Just remember that it's all mental."
Rurouni nodded and remained standing while following her directions. Zanza grabbed a chair and propped his long legs on a green plaid ottoman. "This is so different from anything I've ever seen. It's like I'm in a special effects movie. Where did that throne thing go to and what's up with your eyes, Kaoru?"
"Shihandai, please. In the Online we are not who we are while in the real world. You'll get used to it as you travel within the circles. Rurouni, sit." A graceful flick and several screens popped into being to her left. "Now, you are in fact researching the Online due to several mysterious deaths of VIPs while Online, believed to be related due to the modus operandi. They all died while playing the game I created. I am looking into the possibility of a type of Online crime syndicate using my father's invention and my game to their own evil advantage, illegally I might add. Therefore we are favorably connected and seem to be walking the same file paths."
"Do you always talk so weird," Zanza asked making Itachi giggle.
"Only when she's being serious," the laughing girl explained. "Right now she's too busy recalling information and sifting through files in the back of her mind to speak in anything other than proper and outdated language. You can tell by her eyes, see how they're still kinda fuzzy? Well, they were before she started glaring at us." Itachi moved her face closer to Zanza's "See, I can do it too." As said, her aquamarine eyes began to disappear behind glowing green lines of code that began running over her corneas.
Rurouni, having finally settled himself, sent a screen towards Shihandai with a push of a finger. "Is that how you send them?" She crooked a finger at the slowly traveling screen and nodded.
"You'll get better. What is this?"
"It's the main statement of our mission, I've been able to pull up four of the attachments I was sent along with the statement, but there's a fifth I'm having trouble with. One of our other agents also sent us a paper file of images and his own page of notes on possible conspiracies and theories."
"Katsu," Zanza filled in. "He's one of our brains. Always coming up with new angles and possible connections most of us wouldn't have seen."
"Penlow," Itachi supplied to Shihandai's sideways stare. "You met him several months ago, the weirdo brain with a thing for old shunga."
"I'd like to go through that file as soon as possible. He might be an odd egg, but Penlow is one of the best info-jockeys I've met. Though I've thankfully not been forced to deal with him on a regular basis. See to the scanning of those images and please interpret any handwriting into typed format. I'm not good at reading handwriting."
Shihandai was quiet as she read the statement Rurouni had given her and nodded as she sent it back to him. "Yes, we will be very helpful to each other, but first you two must become more comfortable. I can provide you with a high level game characters to assist us while within that area, but some of your doings will be within reality, I'll not be able to help you in that. Please take no offense if I make the rules while here in the Online." Her eyes were focused on Rurouni who she could tell was the leader of the two.
He nodded with understanding. "It will be something to get used to."
"What's an info-jockey," Zanza asked. "And Katsu never told me he plays Online, though he did show me some of that old art stuff once. Weird stuff." Shihandai nodded to Itachi to provide the explanation while she stole the four screens still floating beside Rurouni that she hadn't seen yet and perused them in silence.
"An info-jockey is a unique person within the Online, not everyone can be one. It's someone who has oddly arranged mental pathways allowing them to remember everything and access this information with just a thought. We can't do it unless we're Online though. Somehow the computer connection allows us to have better memories. So, Shihandai, who can't always remember where she left her shoes, can remember specific conversational phrases from years ago while Online. Everyone has a touch of it, being Online just makes it easier for your brain to function, opens the pathways and such. Some people are just better at it than others, others are much much better."
"So, Shihandai and Penlow are both info-jockeys? Who's better?"
"I am, of course," Itachi bragged to Zanza causing a glimmer of a smile to emerge on Icey's face.
"Itachi is certainly one of the best human data banks," he clarified. "Shihandai is best at the practical uses of the information while Penlow is able to connect the information in an almost inhuman way."
"And what is it that you are best at," Rurouni asked politely
"I, myself like to think that I excel in hardware."
"He does, he does!" Itachi seemed to glow as she heaped praise on her co-worker. "Kaoru and I came up with this neat thing for a little robot helper and he gave us each one as a Christmas present last year. He also makes all of our hardware at the office. All the chairs and connectors you're using were designed by Icey."
"All three of these deaths were definitely in ToM," Shihandai interrupted the explanation. "I'll have to pull their character records. Rurouni, I'll have some time specific information for you tomorrow regarding their characters exact actions at the time of their death. I'll hack the system and maybe even get some in-game vids if able. We should meet some time after two in the afternoon. Itachi, see to the answering of Zanza's questions while taking him around ToM at the lower levels. Icey, you do the same for Rurouni. I'll have their characters updated this evening. Also, please have that paper file scanned before we meet tomorrow." Shihandai threw three screens at Rurouni. "This is some info on what I've been doing, a timeline if you like. This way we'll be familiar with each other's projects and designs."
"So, no going out and beating on a couple thugs this time around, Ken.. I mean Rurouni." Zanza rubbed his knuckles and frowned.
"Don't worry," Itachi comforted him. "I'll take you into ToM tomorrow morning and we'll let you beat up on some thugs there, or maybe we'll find a youkai game somewhere in the network. It'll be fun."
Rurouni's eyes were still watching Shihandai as she tucked her legs under her and delicately placed her palms on the arms of her chair. He saw her face blank of all emotion and her eyes widen as information began running down in long lists. Sitting so near her and yet feeling like she was worlds away wasn't making him very comfortable. He wanted to sit and talk with her again like they had at her dojo, make sure she was feeling alright after her attack, that she was safe. He felt someone staring and turned to see that Ice-Eyes had been watching him stare. "She's very different from when I first met her."
Ice-Eyes nodded. "Shihandai is a rule unto herself here in the Online. Extremely smart and talented, but she has her weaknesses. Our abilities while Offline will assist in keeping her safe. She is in danger unlike what she's known before. I believe she doesn't realize exactly how much. Online meetings will be much safer, but she requires a physical guard, too."
"We could send some agents over," Kenshin offered. "Maybe a twenty-four hour watch."
"She won't accept."
"Then we will have to figure something out, that we will." Rurouni grinned at Ice-Eyes slight nod. "It seems we are both attracted to very stubborn women."
To Be Continued...
I'm baaack... not too long was that, now? But wow.. teh changes that have occured. If you read my last author's notes you were made aware of certain bodily changes. Well.. Now you can be aware that I once more have a waistline and an adorable 3 week old little boy. He was delivered on June 23rd with great fanfare and hullabaloo, but I do have a request of all my readers.
Please pray for my little boy, send up a goodwish even if you're not a believer. he's adorable, there's no quetsion about it, but due to complications of delivery teh bloodflow to his brain was lessened causing possibly permanent and irrepairable damage. Please pray for my baby as I know every little bit helps. We meet with teh doctors tommorrow to discuss a best/worst case scenarios.
My family has seen miracles before, on both sides, both my husbands waking up from a brain dead coma and my youngest neice's three heart surgeries within a week of her birth. It's so easy to lose hope since I already know this will be a wait and watch throughout hsi life situation. But please pray that everythign turns out OK.
Thankyou so much and know that I'm workign on teh next chapter, but as I'm sure you can see, my mind is a bit preoccupied. My fingers are flying over dirty diapers and doctors reports instead of teh keyboard as is proper.